Teaching the Arts

Curriculum Materials

Mexican Prints

Mexican Prints at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Obra Gráfica Mexicana en el Instituto de Arte de Minneapolis) provides a close-up look at fourteen prints from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) made by a selection of Mexico’s leading artists from 1890 to 2010. This resource is designed to be relevant to visual arts, social studies, English language arts, Spanish language, and interdisciplinary lessons for students in grades 6 to 12. Guiding questions and activities encourage students to look closely at, analyze, and communicate about each of the works of art using various methods ranging from discussion and writing to art creation.

These materials are not designed as a curriculum of sequenced lessons. Instead, the components are intended as springboards for you to integrate into your curriculum or use as a discrete lesson plan to challenge your students and meet their curricular needs. We have provided a list of Minnesota state standards that can be supported by using these materials.

Reproduction, including downloading of the individual image files of Toledo, Jiménez, Orozco, Rivera, Siqueiros, and Cuevas works is prohibited by copyright laws and international conventions without the express written permission of Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Additional Resources

MIA Inside/Out: The Battle of Everyouth

This new curriculum guide is a resource for 8th-12th-grade educators of English Language Arts, Geography, and Visual Arts. These materials are not a traditional curriculum, but rather a springboard for teachers to design their own units around these big questions: Violence & Me, The Collateral Damage of Violent Conflict, Non-Violence — Is It Humanly Possible?, Artists on the Subject of Violence & War, and Faith, Loyalty, Pride, Morality, Security & Violence. The units and learning activities contextualize the museum resources provided, including high-resolution images, background information, and discussion questions for 15 artworks from the MIA’s collection.

Online Resources

ArtsConnectEd is a joint project of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and Walker Art Center. Through the site the complementary art collections and education resources of these two museums are shared with K-12 educators and their students, higher education scholars, and an international public. Explore over 100,000 resources in the Art Finder, including works of art, texts, audio, video, and interactive resources. Save, customize, present, and share items in the redesigned Art Collector. Comment, tag, and rate everything!

Events for Teachers

Art Adventure

The Art Adventure Program introduces K-6 students to works of art from a variety of cultures. Trained school volunteers visit classrooms with posters of art relating to a common theme, such animals, celebrations, or relationships. For information on how your school can join the program, call (612) 870-3056.